aedes metaphorically breaks down the Tylenol+alcohol poisoning misconception.
reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/14s9bt/why_i...Posted Dec 13, 2012, 8:54 PM UTC
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Whole thread is good, and that commenter is a good writer even if their grammar is off occasionally. Thanks for sharing.
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I wish americans didn't use brand names for everything so I could understand what was being talked about at a glance instead of having to research the generic name/INN just to appreciate a post.
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A-cet-o-min-o-phen
Ty-len-ol
One of these is easier to say when you have a headache. ;)
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The funniest part about is that only americans call it acetominophen. Everyone else calls it paracetamol.
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Everyone else except the Canadians, Japanese, South Koreans, Hong Kong Chinese, and Iranians.
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And I guess the same goes for Jell-O, Band Aid, Q-Tip and whatever else ;)
I mean, we have brand-name paracetamol too. But we'd only say "Panadol" to the lady behind the counter if we really wanted Panadol. Otherwise we just say... paracetamol, who gives a shit which manufacturer. Well, except we don't I guess, we just pull it off the shelf and walk up to her. But I guess you get my point. That was a bad choice of scenario.
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The problem is that acetominophen is known as paracetamol so using the American generic wouldn't necessarily be helpful in this instance
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aedes is Canadian.
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Yes, thanks.
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So does this mean that you can take a smaller dose of tylenol to cure hangovers and be fine, as long as it's not too much? Or should you stick with ibuprofen ?
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In reasonable doses, it's not going to do harm. I am no official, but it seems that these cases happen when people take over the recommended amount of Tylenol. Also, an occasional drinker is going to be much less at risk than a raging alcoholic.
From my limited research, the risks do not appear to apply to ibuprofen.
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I thought it was Aspirin you shouldn't mix with Alcohol.
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Nah, Tylenol.
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Hmm, that's tylenol in the absence of alcohol, but for an ordinarily heavy drinker.
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I hope you read that post then.
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aedes' comment suffered from the heavy handed use of the metaphor. After studying it for longer than it took to read it I came to an understanding that was much quicker explained by this comment from ProdigySim.
It plays a little fast and loose with the facts, but that's the point of ELI5, not to tell a story that overwhelms you with irrelevant thoughts.
... you know that's r/askscience, not r/eli5, right?
In any case, aedes' explanation was tolerable by skipping every sentence that talked about national parks.
Well, to be fair to CreamedUnicorn, aedes' comment was in reply to a poster that asked for a eli5. But still, I think a younger reader would benefit from a little story.
Without intending to make it a direct criticism, a lot of this confusion would have been alleviated if you'd posted using the context tag so that the original question was also displayed.
Criticism is always wecome.
I had only realized that after the fact, this is my first DepthHub post, and I suppose I should have read the side bar first. Since it explaind how to do so, and I would have.
If it were in r/eli5, sure, but it's not... it's in r/askscience. A strong majority of that audience doesn't (shouldn't?) need a story to understand technical information. To me, that really detracts from the depth of the material.
The story-time version offers a little more detail than his initial post but at a 300% word count. shrug
We've reached an impasse here, divided by the accessibility vs. complexity of knowledge. The world I'm sure needs both.
Knowledge in one science does not necessitate a knowledge in all sciences. His initial post was heavy-handed in science to the point of being textbook tough to understand. ELI5 is going too far, but he needed to parse it down to a more functional post for most people, their depths into science notwithstanding.
For me, ProdigySim's explanation was way more clear and understandable
The artful nature of aedes' explanation creates a more intimate relationship with the reader. It's sort of like how Cid Mier ties education, history, and economics into video games. People retain the information easier because it becomes entertaining and envisionable.
Really? Because he left out the fact that there are multiple metabolic pathways for tylenol, and that only when tylenol is metabolized on one it does not normally interact with do harmful effects occur.
Prodigy essentially gave the "what" explanation but left out the "why" where aedes might have felt more dumbed down but actually included a lot more information.
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Except he skipped the key point - that it's tylenol's metabolites that are toxic, and specifically metabolites through one particular pathway.
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